After about 190 millions of gallons of sewage were spilled by the city of St. Petersburg into Tampa Bay and other local waterways last year, environmental and city officials have been looking at a fix.
The fix to the flooding, tens of millions of gallons of sewage spilled and the nightmare it caused residents in St. Petersburg, is beginning. Starting with the first step, an 1,100-foot well.
- 190 million gallons of sewage spilled into waterways
- City meets to discuss a fix
- Previous stories on St. Pete sewage
“These injection wells take the reclaimed water that people normally put on their lawns. But during rainy times they’re not using it, so this is a way to get rid of that water, and each new well that’s drilled will be about 15 million gallons of extra capacity to get rid of during those wet weather events,” said Public Works Communication Manager Bill Logan.
The city already has a well just like the four they’re proposing. However at the meeting they told the public they at least want to get one approved as soon as possible.
St. Pete City Council member Steve Kornell attended the meeting and pointed out that this will not completely fix the flooding issue. He said there’s a separate project that will help tackle the problem.
This is only one step in the mayor’s $304 million plan. Some residents aren’t sold on the idea.
“They really are grasping for straws,” said resident Barb Haselden. “I know they want to come up with a solution, but my question to them was why was Albert Whitted closed before this type of solution was already online? Because it’s putting the cart in front of the horse.”
Haselden was just one of several people asking tough questions.
Philip Garrett had some questions of his own and for good reason. “I’ve experienced and witnessed flooding throughout my community and my subdivision and so therefore I definitely want the city to put more time and more funding into solutions,” he said.
So is this well one of those solutions? Residents may soon find out because if approved the first well could be drilled as early as June or July.
City officials said the questions and concerns from residents are going to be passed on to city leaders. And then city leaders will decide if those wells will be drilled.